He didn’t understand the timeline of any of this. All he did understand was that if there had been a gap between Kara’s relationships, then he’d missed an opportunity to be something more than the guy she’d bumped into a couple of times at an airport.
He’d been so determined to be respectful, not to encroach on her life or her relationship by calling her or keeping in touch, that he’d let a chance to make it into something more slip through his fingers. What. An. Idiot.
Now she would never know that every single year, apart from this year, because he’d been delayed by the funeral, he’d flown in and out of Glasgow on the same date, at the same time, in the hope that he’d find her. Or that he searched every crowd in the hope that he’d see her there. He’d been ecstatic when he’d spotted her tonight, and then… crash. Burn. Over. Idiot.
He rinsed the shampoo off his hair, then switched off the jets, before grabbing a towel from the rack and drying himself off. He wrapped it around his waist and went out into the bedroom, deciding he deserved a beer from the minibar. Even that reminded him of her. He’d just closed it when there was a bang at the door. Probably his dad, up to say goodnight.
He checked in the spyhole and…
Not his dad.
The woman who’d been holding her boyfriend’s hand only an hour or so ago.
What kind of fresh, fricking torture was this?
He opened the door, expecting some kind of exchange, but no, she marched straight in, not even looking in his direction until she was past him, turned back and then took in the sight in front of her.
‘Aw bollocks, you’re killing me,’ she groaned.
‘Sorry. I’ll go put something on,’ he offered, suddenly aware that he was half-naked.
‘No,’ she said, with finality. ‘I’ll learn to cope. I might just not look at you while I’m speaking. Right, here goes. I need to ask you a couple of things and I need you to be 100 per cent honest, because I just risked my life to be here. If you knew my sister, you’d understand.’
Still keeping her eyes averted, she was now making a beeline for the minibar.
‘Okay, so I want to ask you if there’s a world, any world at all, where you would think of me as more than just a woman you occasionally bump into at airports?’ Question asked, she delved into the small fridge.
He had no idea what was going on right now but he was going with it, mostly because it was impossible to stop the grin that had crossed his face just because she was here.
‘Do you want me to go into depth about it or is this a yes or no situation?’
Standing up, eyes now on him, she broke a square off a bar of Dairy Milk and popped it in her mouth. ‘Yes or no.’
‘Yes.’
Now she was the one who was grinning. ‘Really?’
‘Still yes or no?’ he checked.
‘Yes.’
‘Then definitely yes.’
‘Okay, before I get carried away, I need to provide more information. Would it change your answer if I told you that I only broke off my engagement three days ago?’
So he must have got the wrong idea about Ollie earlier. Huge relief. ‘No.’
‘Or that I lost my job on the same day?’
‘No.’
‘Currently without a fixed address?’
‘No.’
‘Have to leave tomorrow morning on the 6a.m. flight to London to join my family on the connecting flight to Hawaii or my sister will murder me in cold blood?’
‘No.’
